Sleeping Beauty
by Alex Verse Naberrie
Summary: "... and princess pricked her finger and fall asleep." Jim said. "You should look out what you are taking, my dear." (Story has vid trailers and book cover's images.)


**A/N: The story inspired by the scene with Jim and Sherlock from"Abominable Bride". The fic has also videos and images, please see link to them in my profile.**

oOo

"Here, it should be much more comfortable for you," Professor Moriarty said, while throwing a barely conscious detective on the bed."...than the floor."

James stared at the picture in front of him with displeasure. It took quite a lot of time and effort to arrange their meeting at Baker Street. Professor was looking for a nice intelligent conversation, but he got a drug addict among papers, books and ampoules with his 'seven percent solution'.

With a heavy sigh, he sat next to Holmes' form.

"What I should do now, Sherlock?"

"...possibly my answer has crossed yours."

"Wow! So you can speak. I've thought that you've just flown away." To underline his mood, he deliberately hit the consultant with a nearby bed cushion.

"Why aren't you dead?" Holmes's eyes closed momentary and he shook his head to regain at least some part of his focus, but in the result the room became much blurred than before.

"It's tearing your world apart, not knowing, isn't it?" A suddenly pleased Moriarty made himself comfortable on Sherlock's chest.

"I saw you die," Holmes blurted with a heavy breath. He clearly didn't enjoy being a pillow for one of the most dangerous man in the world.

"I like your rooms. They smell so...manly." James changed the topic.

The spider glanced at the detective. His eyes were fluttering, as if the consultant could not decide if he should ignore the incident and continue sleeping or throw his guest out. Or rather – Sherlock could hardly decide if his archenemy really was sitting next to him or he was talking to himself, again.

"You look quite nice like that, maybe I should order a portrait of you? Tell me, does your illustrator travel with you? Is he free? Do you have to pose during your deductions?"

"...I'm aware of all six occasions, you have visited these apartments during my absence..." Holmes at last came to the conclusion that Moriarty was real and tried to pull the criminal's hands (which started playing with buttons of his waistcoat) away from his body, but Professor without much effort put them back down.

"Amazingly awake, but still too slow. Eh, can't keep anything shiny." he pushed at Holmes' chest, making him wince. "I had such ... vision, but you destroyed everything."

"Fascinating." Sherlock's replied with the pure disgust.

A dark shadow moved on Moriarty's face, but it vanished as quickly as it appeared, replaced by something much more sinister. Sherlock thought that people with a 'changeable nature' were a bad material for heads of high crime organizations. Their inability to stick to one point and plan all according to it, were usually their undoing. Why a certain professor of mathematics could not stick to the norm?

"Well, so let me tell you a story ..."

 _Once a upon a time in a far away kingdom lived king and queen. They mariage was full of happiness and soon a baby princess was born. To celebrate her first birthday, a huge party was made. Many quests arrived and each one of them had a gift for the young lady. Among them were three fairies, whose presents were the most precious among all others._

 _"You will be the most beautiful princess in the world." first one said._

 _"You will become one of wisest ladies in the kingdom." Second one added._

 _The third one... never finished her sentence, as a fourth fairy arrived. A frustrated and forgotten guest, without invitation. To punish the royal family, she also gave the princess a gift – or rather a curse._

"I also have something for you," Moriarty said.

The fog in detective's eyes was vanishing, but except of small attempts to sit up, Holmes did not make any movement or did not try to push the enemy away. It surprised Professor a little, especially when he intentionally destroyed Sherlock's well combed hair.

The detective could decide to ignore James' actions for now and wait to regain his full strength or hope that Professor would reveal information, which could later help him catching the mastermind again. Of course, Moriarty did not want to risk that the position would change, he had just started the story.

"A 7 percent solution serves well, I mean for 'stop the boredom', but what would you say for my 21 percent revolution? You will have to forgive me, but I didn't have time to come with a better name." the eyes of his prey widened. "I was told that it was breathtaking."

 _"On the day of her 15th birthday, ..._

Moriarty continued, as Holmes's hands raised up in defence.

 _"... the girl would prick her finger on a needle and die. "_

Professor caught them easily in his one palm, while pulling a gun from his black suit.

"Do you mind if I fire this? Just to clean it up." James said, when he put a revolver near Holmes' head and with the second hand free at last – injected the substance.

"You can be quite a challenge, don't you my dear?"

Sherlock whined, when the needle left his arm.

"I'd be offended if you didn't."

 _Thankfully, the third fairy managed to partially reserve the curse – The princess would only fell in a deep sleep and would be woken up by a prince's kiss._

"No." The specific worked very fast. Holmes tried to twist his face away from James' reach, but his actions could be compared to a butterfly caught in spider's web. Moriarty chuckled.

 _Soon, the king forbid to use any sort of spinning wheels or any sharp materials in his kingdom. Time passed and all seemed to be well. Until the dark day – when servants found the sleeping princess with a small red cut on her finger and a spinning wheel nearby._

"Stop it!"

Moriarty was momentarily hypnotized by a similar wound on Sherlock's palm.

"You are right. We don't need toys to kill each other." he put the syringe into his pocket. "Where's the intimacy in that?"

 _All princes from neighbouring countries were summoned and promised the lady's hand if she opened her eyes, but non of them could wake her up. As the beauty of their daughter was well known and many men tried to see her, king and queen cut their daughter from the world in the highest tower of the castle._

 _Months passed, the red mark on the sleeping beauty's finger had never vanished._

Holmes' body could be immobilised, but somehow he freed his own hand from James' grasp.

 _One day, a black haired prince came to visit the royal family and offered his services in helping to break the curse. He promised to send for all magicians from every country, bring all books with exotic spells to their castle and hire all famous healers. King and queen were charmed by his attitude and in thanks they allowed him to take care of their daughter._

"By the way, you have a surprisingly comfortable bed." Moriarty put in. "But you should clean your room more often. The dust is everywhere. And it gets everywhere. Ugh."

"You're insane."

"Did you know that dust is largely composed of human skin?" James chose to ignore his comment.

 _The prince brushed her hair, feed her, covered her with a warm blanket, when it was cold, cleaned the room and put fresh flowers next to her bed every morning._

"Yes, I know." the detective emotionlessly observed as his cover, which against Moriarty's words, was thrown away.

"Doesn't taste the same, though," James complained as a small child. "you want your skin fresh."

They looked at each other, they both knew how it would end. Sherlock did not need to remember every fairy tale from his childhood, the plot was always the same. A damsel in a distress, a handsome hero and a wedding at the end. It was a pity that no child asked what a married couple did afterwards. Holmes only hoped that he would not break too quickly.

 _All knew that he made her better._

"Don't worry, soon your mind will also feel effects ..."

 _One day, the king asked the dark prince to wake the sleeping beauty and when his lips left princess's, she opened her eyes. There were tears, joy and happiness._

In his last attempt to somehow unbalance the consulting criminal, Holmes threw himself on Professor, but to his dread, he was caught and forced to stay against James' chest.

 _Soon a wedding was organized and they lived happy and ever after, almost..._

The detective stopped struggling. This was different.

"What do you want, Sherlock?"

"The truth."

"That. Truth's boring!"

Holmes winced, he surely would be bruised and bleeding on next day, but he really did not wanted to add deafness to the list of his injuries.

"But I can make it much more interesting with the special decor." Moriarty replied with a quieter tone and gently put Sherlock on the bed again.

 _For the princess, the time had never passed. Mentally, she was still a young girl and seeing a man, with black eyes in front of her sleeping bed, only made the beauty frighten. Moreover, her parents ordered her to marry the man and none of girl's objections could change their mind._

 _"Please prince, stop the engagement." the lady begged, when she was alone with her fiancee._

 _"Please sit down, my beloved. You are still weak after the long sleep. Thankfully, the cut on your finger stopped bleeding already."_

The spider once again looked at his prey's hand.

 _The wound was still fresh. But how could it be possible? The third fairy said that a prince's kiss could wake her up. No other conditions were needed. She heard that many men visited her, but non of them managed to break the curse._

 _Suddenly, a twisted smirk appeared on the black prince's face, encouraging her to make her own deductions._

 _Magic and reality could be a very dangerous combination. The spell came first – the evil witch said that the a needle would make her die. The reality came next – some substance was injected into her body, servants were bribed and gave it to her every day by cutting her finger._

 _He planned it all along._

 _"You will not get my kingdom." she stated furiously._

 _"I have never wanted it. It is you, who is my greatest trophy."_

Suddenly, Moriarty caught Sherlock by his arms startling the detective.

 _"You have nowhere to go now."_

 _"My friends..."_

 _"Poor thing, your parents did not want to upset you. Your friends left the castle long time ago."_

Holmes blinked, the story became too sad.

"People, people, people! All the used-up people. That's all people really are, you know, dust waiting to be distributed. In every breath you take, dancing in every sunbeam, all the used-up people."

 _"You will not run, my dear. Do you know why? Because I also was given three gifts from my fairy godmothers. The wisdom, an eternal success of the winner and a promise of one wish."_

 _"What did you wish for?"_

 _"Have you ever been so bored that you wanted to die?"_

"Yes." Sherlock replied.

 _"No one could challenge me, until I've met you during one of my journeys. You may not remember me, but I haven't forgotten about you."_

 _"So you asked to have me. Typical."_

 _"No. I knew that the solution will be you, but my request was slightly different. You see, your witch was my third godmother and she helped a lot." he smiled. "My dearest fairy, I want to marry my equal. The person, who would stand up to my position, but never won. She would fight and bite, but loose. When she would try to kill me or herself, the death would come on a person, which she loved the most."_

"You can be honest, was it good?" James asked suddenly. "Could I compete with Grimms brothers?"

He look at tears in Holmes' eyes.

"Well, I'll tell you what, that rather blows the cobwebs away."

 _The old kitchen lady, who had known the sleeping beauty since she had been born, died from the old age._

Ms. Hudson.

"You're trying to stop me..." Sherlock managed to say, even when inside he was burning out.

 _A brave servant, who often was neglected by the royalty, except of the princess, did not even feel connected to the castle anymore and moved to the farthest region of the kingdom._

Hooper.

"To distract me,..."

 _When princess was small, she befriended two guards. During her sleep, first one was promoted and with many responsibilities, he barely had time to visit the princess._

Lestrade.

"...derail me."

 _The second guard married happily. Princess knew that she could not ask him to return to the palace, it became a very dangerous place._

John.

"No."

"Why? What do you want?"

"You to stop this!"

"Not true, you know that's not true. What do you want, Sherlock?"

 _Due to her position, the princess had only a few friends, who suddenly were beyond her reach._

 _The sleeping beauty had also an older brother. He loved his sister dearly, but also his pleas to stop the wedding, fall on deaf ears._

Mycroft.

"Stop it. Stop this. You don't have to be a genius to know how it will end. You had your fun, came back from the dead and you are the arrogant drama queen-detective again." Professor continued. "But you don't care about Sir Eustace, or the Bride, or any of it. There's only one thing in this whole business that you find interesting."

 _Hearing that she was alone, the princess wept._

"Exactly, let's stop playing." James said gently. "Wasn't it the reason why you came back?"

Sherlock could not hold any longer. He did not know on whom he was more furious. At Moriarty, who againts any logic, picked the crying detective up and surrounded him with his own warm arms, or at himself, when he welcomed the gesture.

"To never be put away, to be noticed and heard. Especially, by people for whom you care the most. Because you've found the real purpose in your life."

Sherlock tightened his arms around James.

"It didn't work as you liked, did it?" there was a genuine pity in his voice. "Solitude can be so painful."

 _There was also a second mistery – the third fairy's gift. The sleeping beauty's brother, thanks to his fairy godmother, was very inteligent. As he was the firstborn, other fairy created a spell, which promised him to never loose the kingdom or his crown. The third godmother knew that to rule sucesfully, a king or queen could not allow any emotions to cloud their judgement. That is why, she gave the firstborn prince an ability to change his heart into stone, but the fairy never had the chance to give it to the princess._

"Of all people, you should know that, it's not the fall that kills you." Moriarty whispered softly into detective's ear. "It's the landing."

 _The sleeping beauty cried for the whole night and the black prince never let her go._

oOo

Shelrock Holmes woke up on the next day, surprisingly untouched. His vision was blurred, but enough to see a bunch of pink roses on a bed table and a book about a princess, who slept for one hundred years, but had never grown old (It was frystrating that a human's fantasy would alsways break all laws of phicycs and nature).

So it was it. Moriarty leid all elements for him in a form of a story.

Mothers, wives, widows neglected just like young princess, who in the end had never any choice.

Reality and fairy tale. The curse and drugs – ghosts and organized crime.

A mastermind. Consulting criminal, who was approached by a group of independent women. A black prince, who planned everything, just to get his prize.

And Sherlock Holmes...

 _The sleeping beauty cried for the whole night and the black prince never let her go._

 _Moriarty, who againts any logic, picked the crying detective up and surrounded him with his own warm arms._

It was nothing, Holmes told himself. But at the same time, the most cold and realistic part was stating that he should be dead (or worse) by now.

"No, not now." Sherlock curled his arms around blanket.

He had to focus on the case. He had just got the solution for the abominable bride. Most importantly, he knew what the spider planned next.

 **A/N: Sleeping Beauty had many versions so I think that it was possible that Jim or Sherlock could hear about it (maybe not that one from Grimms, but something similar).**

 **I mentioned Molly in fic, as she has a important role in modern Sherlock and he considers her a friend.**


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